If you’ve been distracted by the recent beautiful weather, leaving last year’s books languishing on the table, you’d better start turning those pages because a new crop of exciting books with Minnesota connections are hot off the presses or close to publication.

Here’s a peek at some of the big ones coming out in the next few months. (Author appearances are in parenthesis.)

AVAILABLE NOW

“Fire in the Village: New and SelectedStories” by Anne M. Dunn (Holy Cow! Press): The author, an Anishinabeg grandmother and elder storyteller who lives on the Leech Lake Reservation, tells 75 stories in her fifth book that offer insights into the mythic origins of the natural and supernatural worlds, many with a moral message that have a long history in storytelling. For adults and children.

“Fort Snelling at Bdote” by Peter DeCarlo (Minnesota Historical Society Press): The story of the deeply complicated history of the area where the Minnesota River joins the Mississippi, considered by many Dakota people to be a sacred place of origin and a site of genocide. This oversized paperback, rich with text and pictures, is a primer on Fort Snelling, a symbol of patriotism and pioneer spirit but also where army officers held enslaved African Americans and where starving Dakota were imprisoned. The author is a historian and digital specialist for MNopedia, the online encyclopedia of Minnesota history.

“The Great Wall of China and the Salton Sea: Monuments, Missteps, and the Audacity of Ambition” by Russell Rathbun (Eerdmans Publishing Co.): Rathbun says there are two man-made objects you can see from outer space: the Great Wall of China and the Salton Sea in California. And so he sets out on an exploration of human ambition, interspersing his travelogues with musings on history, a family secret, the Great Flood, the Tower of Babel and other topics.

“Living from the Center Within” by Michele Rae (Paragon House): Subtitled “Co-creating Who You Are Becoming,” this book explores interconnectedness between aspects of consciousness. The author is a transformational coach, founder of The Center Within who teaches at the University of Minnesota in the Center for Spirituality and Healing and Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

“Chutzpah & High Heels: The Search for Love and Identity in the Holy Land” by Jessica Fishman (Yotzeret Publishing): In this humorous memoir, Fishman, who grew up in Minnesota, tells about moving to Israel where she overcame obstacles such as making embarrassing mistakes in speaking Hebrew. Then she meets an obstacle that tests the core of her identity and nearly destroys the ideology that brought her to Israel. Yotzeret Publishing is based in St. Paul.

“Murder on Madeline Island” by Lorrie Holmgren (Cozy Cat Press): First in a series featuring travel writer Emily Swift, who will go to vacation destinations where she’s entangled in mysteries. In “Murder on Madeline Island,” she joins her boyfriend for a romantic getaway and becomes a prime suspect when she discovers a body in an abandoned refrigerator and the victim’s blood stains are found in her car.

MARCH

FICTION

“The Impossible Fairy Tale” by Han Yujoo (Graywolf Press): In what the Minneapolis-based publisher describes as “literary horror,” this Korean author tells of spoiled Mia, whose grade-school classmate, the Child, is nearly invisible. The children have created at school a cruel and soul-crushing hierarchy. When the Child sneaks into a classroom and adds ominous sentences to her classmates’ notebooks, events end in violence. This debut novel takes an unexpected turn when a teacher, who is also the book’s author, wakes from an intense dream and when she arrives at her next class, she recognizes the Child, who knows everything about the events of the novel’s first half.

“Dead Astern” by Jenifer LeClair (Conquill Press): In LeClair’s fifth Windjammer mystery featuring homicide Det. Brie Beaumont, something feels amiss about seven friends who charter Maine Wind for a cruise that turns deadly when one is lost overboard. As Brie investigates, drilling down through layers of hatred, mistrust and deception, old crimes come to light and tensions rise. (Noon Saturday, March 18, Once Upon a Crime, 604 26th St. W., Mpls.)

“Murder on the Red River” by Marcie Rendon (Cinco Puntos Press): The author, an enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinabe Nation and a Minnesota Book Award finalist, makes her mystery debut. The novel’s protagonist, Cash, is an orphan born into a White Earth Anishinabe family but raised mostly by herself and the child welfare system. She has a way of “knowing,” seeing events she is not present at unfold in her mind. Rendon delves deep into the history of Native American communities and the danger of forcing assimilation on a community outside the mainstream of American cultural norms.

“Pekoe Most Poison” by Laura Childs (Berkley Prime Crime): Best-selling author Gerry Schmitt, writing as Childs, celebrates publication of the 40th book in her series featuring Theodosia Browning, owner of a tea shop in Charleston, S.C., who reluctantly takes on some sleuthing at the request of a woman whose husband died in the middle of a “rat tea,” an old custom during which wealthy women gave teas to raise money for eradication of rats in post World War II Charleston. (Noon Saturday, March 11, Once Upon a Crime)

“Seconds to Midnight” by Philip Donlay (Oceanview Publisning): In his seventh aeronautical thriller featuring Eco-Watch founder, wealthy Donovan Nash, and his meteorologist wife, Lauren, Nash and his friend Michael Ross are in the air and narrowly miss colliding with another aircraft. The Boeing 737, which is not supposed to be there, crash lands on a frozen lake and the female survivor whispers, “Don’t let them know I’m alive — they’ll kill everyone.” While Nash searches for answers at the bottom of a frozen lake, his wife runs from operatives embedded in the top levels of the Russian government. And when communications are crippled by a solar storm, the clock ticks toward a possible catastrophe. (Noon March 25, Once Upon a Crime; 7 p.m. March 30, Barns & Noble, 3230 Galleria, Edina)

NONFICTION

“Complicated Fun: The Birth of Minneapolis Punk and Indie Rock, 1974-1984” by Cyn Collins (Minnesota Historical Society Press): The host of KFAI radio’s “Spin with Cyn” brings together memories of the men and women who built Minnesota’s indie rock scene through interviews with musicians, producers, managers, journalists and fans.

“Dakota Minnesota” by Gwen Westerman (Minnesota Historical Society Press): The name “Minnesota” comes from the Dakota language and the author, a distinguished faculty scholar and director of the humanities program at Minnesota State University-Mankato, shares the Dakota origin story, the people’s stewardship of the land and its resources, and the interconnections among Dakota family groups and other tribes who lived through the territory that would become Minnesota.

“The Bride Price: A Hmong Wedding Story” by Mai Neng Moua (Minnesota Historical Society Press): When Mai Neng Moua decided to get married, her widowed mother wanted the groom to follow Hmong custom and pay a bride price. Mai Neng and her fiance refused, and because they wouldn’t participate in the traditional Hmong marriage ceremony, many members of their families stayed away from the church wedding. Even after the bride price had been paid, Mai Neng finds herself outside Hmong culture. Through a trip to Thailand, work in the garden and the birth of another generation, mother and daughter seek reconciliation.

“First Thought:Conversations with Allen Ginsberg” by Michael Schumacher (University of Minnesota Press): Schumacher, author of the acclaimed biography of Allen Ginsberg, “Dharma Lion,” and editor of “The Essential Ginsberg,” collects for the first time the “Howl” poet in conversation about literature, consciousness and politics, as well as his own work.

“Lake Fish: Modern Cooking with Fresh Water Fish” by Keane Amdahl (Minnesota Historical Society Press): The author, a home cook, offers recipes arranged by fish type, including Sunfish Pot Stickers and Walleye with Morels and Brown Butter.

“You’re Sending Me Where? Dispatches from Summer Camp” by Eric Dregni (University of Minnesota Press): Dregni, author of 17 books, is dean of the Italian Concordia Language Village in summer, and in this memoir, he recalls his boyhood days of camping while reassuring readers there’s still a place in the woods where children can connect with nature. (7 p.m. March 21, Theodore Wirth Chalet, Theodore Wirth Park, 1301 Theodore Wirth Pkwy., Golden Valley)

APRIL

FICTION

“Once in a Blue Moon Lodge” by Lorna Landvik (University of Minnesota Press): The sequel to Landvik’s popular debut novel, “Patty Jane’s House of Curl,” finds Nora Rolvaag at loose ends after her mother, Patty Jane, sells the neighborhood salon. Nora accompanies her grandmother to Norway to tend a dying cousin, and Nora discovers her grandmother’s long-ago love story and, even more surprising, the beginning of her own. (6:30 p.m. April 25, Chanhassen Public Library, 7711 Kerber Blvd.)

“Freefall” by Brian Lutterman (Conquill Press): Third in the series featuring paraplegic attorney Pen Wilkinson, who receives a call from her estranged sister telling Pen her teenage nephew Kenny has vanished. Pen travels across the country to search for the young man, a computer prodigy, and contends with the FBI, deadly mercenaries and a hacker backed by Russian thugs. Kenny, it’s revealed, holds the key to preventing a cyber disaster that could send the wold’s economy into freefall. (April 8, Once Upon a Crime, 604 26th St. W., Mpls.)

NONFICTION

“Flying Funny: My Life Without a Net” by Dudley Riggs; foreword by Al Franken (University of Minnesota Press): Founder of the nationally known Brave New Workshop, Riggs is a fifth-generation member of a show business family who made his circus debut parading in a wagon pulled by a polar bear. By 8 years old, he had joined this parents on the trapeze. In this memoir, Riggs describes his life in show business as vaudevillian, comedian, clown, movie actor, writer, stage director and producer, all of which helped when he founded Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis, home of the “next wave” of American entertainment — improvisation. Sen. Franken is a workshop alum.

“Deep Woods, Wild Waters“ by Douglas Wood (University of Minnesota Press): Wood, author of 34 books for children and adults, is also an artist, musician, naturalist and wilderness guide. In this memoir, he reveals the life path that has taken him from childhood outings in a rowboat to northern Minnesota’s canoe country and farther north. Among his books is the classic “Old Turtle.”

“Island Home” by Tim Winton (Milkweed Editions): Australian author of 26 books for adults and children offers a memoir of how Australia’s unique landscape shaped him and his writing.

“White Birch, Red Hawthorn” by Nora Murphy (University of Minnesota Press): In 12 essays, Murphy, a fifth-generation Irish Minnesotan, tells the story of the virgin maple grove claimed by her great-great-grandparents that was built on land taken from the Dakota Indians. She tells how the grove was home to three Native tribes and how the U.S. government took the land from the Indians.

MAY

FICTION

“The Worlds We Think We Know” by Dalia Rosenfeld (Milkweed Editions): A resident of Tel Aviv, Rosenfeld makes her short fiction debut in stories that take readers from New York, where a professor is mugged and must repeat the crime to recover his memory, to an unnamed Eastern European country from which a woman haunts the husband who left her to begin a new life in America.

NONFICTION

“F. Scott Fitzgerald in Minnesota: The Writer and His Friends atHome” by Dave Page, photography by Jeff Krueger (University of Minnesota Press): Page, a Fitzgerald scholar, researched letters, scrapbooks and diaries to offer a fresh look at the young Fitzgerald, sources for characters in his novels and the places he wrote about, as well as an understanding of why St. Paul so inspired him. Combines insights into the writer’s early career with the architectural history of St. Paul. (7 p.m. July 27, Roseville Library, 2173 N. Hamline Ave.)

“Give a Girl a Knife“ by Amy Thielen (Potter): The author, who grew up in northern Minnesota, tells a coming-of-age story about moving with her artist husband to an off-the-grid cabin in northern Minnesota where she finds herself with a growing food obsession that takes her through diverse kitchens and eras. Thielen is a chef, TV cook and two-time James Beard Award-winning author of “The New Midwestern Table.”

Mary Ann joined the Dispatch-Pioneer Press in 1961 when there were two papers. She has been a fashion writer, a women's columnist and the women's department editor who brought "society" pages into the 20th century. She was named book editor in 1983, just when the local literary community exploded. She has won the Minnesota Book Awards Kay Sexton Award, a Page One Award and YWCA Leader Lunch Award. She retired in 2001 and works part time. A graduate of Macalester College, she lives on St. Paul's West Side in a money-sucking Victorian house with assorted old animals.

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